Well typically we reserve the Friday Night Community post for streams going on in the community, we have none to announce this week. But we do have some community related announcements waiting to get some hang time on our news feed. So this week:

My Little Pony Novel Coming To Big Apple Ponycon VIP Mixer

Way To The Hoof Announcement (Animation Contest)

Bronies Documentary to be featured at the Kansas City FilmFest

All after the page break.

My Little Pony Novel Coming To Big Apple Ponycon VIP Mixer

Upcoming My Little Pony chapter book by G.M. Berrow to be available to VIP Reception attendees.

Brooklyn, New York ­ Big Apple Ponycon is excited to announce that attendees of their VIP Reception on Saturday night will be receiving advance copies of My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, the first book in G.M. Berrow’s upcoming series. A very special guest may even be in attendance to discuss it!

In addition to getting their hands on a copy of the book, attendees of the reception will have a chance to mingle and chat with a number of other prominent pony people, including Andrea Libman, Jayson Thiessen, Katie Cook, Andy Price, and others. Attendance is limited! Tickets can be obtained at: http://www.bigappleponycon.com/vip­reception/. If you can’t make the VIP Reception, there’s still hope. Berrow will be donating one signed copy of the book to BAP’s charity auction. Don’t miss the chance to help a good cause and take home a cool piece of pony memorabilia.

A Brooklyn native, Berrow’s childhood aspiration was to become either a princess or a pony. While she isn’t quite there yet, her work on the upcoming series of My Little Pony chapter books is certainly on par. The first of the series, My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, is slated for release on April 2.

About Big Apple Ponycon

Established in 2012, Big Apple Ponycon is a multi­generational convention for collectors and fans of Hasbro’s My Little Pony franchise, and the community surrounding it, from its origin in 1983 to its present incarnation. The Brooklyn­based convention will take place at The New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge on March 23­24, 2013. For further information, please visit www.bigappleponycon.com.­

Noe Idea Studios and Golden Creation Productions are proud to announce that we are opening a competition like no other. Six teams of animators (possibly more, depending on how many applications we receive) will be going head to head to create a series of animations that will leave you breathless. Drawing inspiration from the Hong Kong cinema and Anime, these animations will be demonstrating the “Way of the Hoof,” that is to say, Pony Martial Arts. Each team will be working with a musician to create a seamless experience of sight and sound that will show the height of creativity. Once the teams are formed, there will be a 12 week period for them to create their animations from start to finish. After that, the videos will be brought forward for public voting. Once voting ends, the winning team will all receive handmade plushies of their respective OCs or a canon pony of their choice, and the prizes may increase even more depending on the response this generates.

We are now accepting applications for animators of all sorts, concept artists, sound technicians, musicians, and eventually voice actors! Animators are the main class we’re searching for right now since we already do have quite the roster of musicians to work with. Any type of animation is welcome, whether it be Flash, 3D, or even traditional frame-by-frame animation. We all look forward to the incredible works of art that this competition will aid in producing!

We are extremely pleased to announce that the Bronies documentary will be featured at the Kansas City FilmFest on April 11 & 13. This is a monumental step forwards towards spreading the word about the film and what the Brony community is about.

In addition to the screenings, there will be Q&A’s with producers John de Lancie, Lauren Faust and Michael Brockhoff as well as VIP events.

When we started this project, back in May of 2012, we designed the film with a vision in mind. While we could see the joy and love contained within the Brony fandom, some in this world could not. The documentary was a project designed to act as a safe, well meaning introduction to the fandom for those who had not yet heard of it, in order to show the world what this community could do, and give them an inside look at what goes on within. We feel the film accomplished this goal admirably, and our screening at the Kansas City FilmFest only reinforces that, and helps further these goals. We hope for many more opportunities like this in the future, so that we can help the public understand the fandom better.

Bronies are amazing, and the world agrees. We are just helping to show them why. Thank you all for your incredible support. Without you, none of this would be possible.

We look forward to meeting midwest Bronies and screening the film with a mixed Brony and general public crowd.